At the time of direct consumption or sending into the processing cycles for canning, it is necessary, for health reasons, to wash vegetables and fruit in general since these products are often associated with various extraneous bodies, insects, dirt, chemical substances as for example, antiparasitic agents or fertilizers, etc. After the washing operation, a drying operation is performed for those products that need it. In households, washing of these products is normally performed by hand by putting the products directly into the water, while for those products that need it (for example, salads), drying can be performed, for example, by perforated baskets rotated by various systems, which hold the product and allow the exit of drops of water to the outside by centrifugal force due to the rotation of the basket.
Besides the fact that the person is forced to keep his hands in cold water, this system has the disadvantage of requiring much time to perform an accurate washing of said products which further has the disadvantage, particularly for greens, of impoverishing the vitamin and mineral components contained in them caused by the long stay of the greens in the water; this system further has the advantage of having to remove the products from the container where they are washed and put them in baskets to perform the drying.
In industry, and generally when the amounts of products to be washed are considerable, there are washing vats in which water is made to circulate to create turbulent movements; the products, immersed in these vats, are agitated and stirred by the turbulence of the water itself and in this way washing of the products is performed.
For drying, the products are removed from the washing vats and put into a perforated rotating basket in which, by centrifugal force, this operation is performed.
Besides the not inconsiderable fact of involving a loss of time to remove the products from the washing vats and transport and place them into rotating baskets for drying, this system has the drawback of requiring two different apparatus to perform the operations described above.